♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Today on "America's Test Kitchen", Becky makes me a big bowl of zuppa toscana, Jack challenges me and Julia to a head-to-head tasting of white bread, and I make Julia a light and airy focaccia.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

♪♪ "America's Test Kitchen" is brought to you by the following.

-Plugrà European-style butter was created for all chefs, cooks, and bakers, slow-churned with 82% butterfat for a smooth texture and more pliability for flaky crusts.

Plugrà -- from professional kitchens to your home.

-GreenPan Frost, the frozen treat maker that makes ice cream, sorbet, slushies, and more, with a built-in chiller that goes from fresh to frozen.

GreenPan Frost.

-On an American Cruise Lines journey, travelers can experience the maritime heritage of the Maine coast and New England islands.

Our fleet of small cruise ships explore seaside villages, private harbors, and historic lighthouses while experiencing the local customs and cuisine that define New England.

American Cruise Lines, proud sponsor of "America's Test Kitchen."

-Smithey Ironware -- polished for performance, naturally nonstick, clear of chemical coatings, made in America, made to be passed down for generations.

Smithey -- Use it well.

♪♪ -In a world of endless breadsticks, why not enjoy a bowl of zuppa toscana?

Well, that's what we're going to make today, our own version of a very famous chain restaurant's soup.

And Becky's here to show us how it's done.

-We're going to make the soup that's modeled after the Olive Garden soup.

Ours is going to be just a little bit lighter, but just as satisfying.

-Okay, great.

-We're going to start with a tablespoon of olive oil.

I have this heating over medium heat in my Dutch oven here.

And now we're going to go in with a pound of hot Italian sausage.

So I told you just a little lighter.

It's not -- you're still going to love it.

-Still a pound.

Casings removed, right?

-Yes.

The casings were taken off.

So I'm just chopping this up.

A wooden spoon is the perfect tool for this.

So we're gonna let this cook for 5 to 7 minutes.

We want it to start to get nice and brown.

And we'll let that go for a little bit while we prepare some vegetables.

-Okay.

-I have one onion here.

I start by cutting off the one end, but I leave the root end intact.

And then I like to do my horizontal cuts first.

And after my horizontal cuts, then I'm going to go down with some vertical cuts.

So now when I cut, I get nice, fine dice.

-Lovely.

-All right.

So there's our onion ready to go.

Next we need 1 pound of russet potatoes.

And guess what.

This weighs exactly a pound.

-Awesome.

-See how it's a little bit green there?

-Yes.

-That's called solanine.

You don't want to eat that.

That can give you an upset stomach.

So we'll just peel a little bit extra to make sure we get rid of all that green.

All right, now we're going to cut this into 3/4 inch dice.

-Okay.

-So I just take each plank and I cut each one into thirds and then turn it, cut it crosswise, and we get about three quarter inches.

There's our 1 pound of potatoes.

All right, it's time for some kale now.

-We had such promise.

[ Laughs ] -[ Laughs ] Come on, give me a chance.

I gave you sausage.

I'm giving you potatoes.

-It's true, it's true.

And I have to say, you know, kale has gotten a bad rap from me.

You know, I'm not crazy about it in a salad, but I do love it in a soup.

-Oh, yeah.

It's gonna cook down.

You won't even notice it's there.

[ Both laugh ] Kale is really easy to prep.

It's got this central stem going down the center.

So I like to just run my knife along that stem, and it just kind of falls right off.

You can just shave it off like that.

So we're using 6 ounces of kale.

-What if you have no kale at home?

-You got to have some greens, Bridget.

So we're just going to chop that up.

Kind of a rough chop.

-Nice.

-And our kale is ready, too.

-All right.

-Okay.

Smells amazing.

-Yes.

-The sausage has been going for about 5 minutes.

You can see how it's starting to get nice and brown and all that golden fat came out.

-Definitely.

-That's good stuff.

We'll take it out of the pan for the time being.

A slotted spoon is good for that.

All right, so now here's that onion I chopped up.

-Thank you.

-And now I have 4 garlic cloves.

And this is so easy.

I'm just going to press the garlic right into the soup.

No reason to do it ahead or anything.

-Garlic presses are fantastic of just, like, squeezing out as much flavor from the garlic, too.

A very different flavor from chopping.

-Yeah, because it gets so fine.

So you get all the juices in there.

Starting to smell really good already, isn't it?

-Yes.

-1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Throw that in there.

The onions are getting a little bit translucent.

-Yes.

-Now we're talking.

So now let's add a tablespoon of flour.

Going to mix this in and let this cook for 30 to 60 seconds.

So the flour will be coated in all that great fat.

And that way, when we add liquid, it's not going to turn lumpy.

-Gotcha.

-Now we have our potato, our gigantic 1-pounder.

-Yes.

-Put that in.

And then I have 4 cups of chicken broth.

That's just one carton of chicken broth.

Oh, and a cup of water.

Okay, so I'm going to increase the heat.

I'm going to bring it up to high so it'll start to boil.

And then once it comes to a boil, I'll turn down the heat, put the cover on, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

-Okay.

-All right.

It's been 15 minutes.

The potatoes are tender.

We'll add in all that kale.

That's just 6 ounces.

It's gonna cook down.

-Yes.

-So we'll put that in.

Put the sausage in there.

Make sure we get all that yummy fat in there, too.

I'm not gonna leave that out.

-Yes.

-And now we'll just let this simmer for about 5 minutes.

The kale is going to wilt down.

Everything's going to get to know each other and good things going to happen.

-Sausage is going to give off all that flavor into the broth.

-Yeah.

Okay.

So we'll let this simmer for 5 minutes.

♪♪ Okay.

It's been 5 minutes.

-Yes.

-The kitchen is smelling really great.

So we just need to finish it off here.

I'm gonna kill the heat.

I'm adding 1/2 cup of cream.

And that's really not that much cream.

That's because we have the starch from the potato.

We added a little bit of flour in there.

The soup already had a little body, and now we're just adding a little cream.

This is the simplest soup, is it not?

-It came together like that.

-Yeah.

Just a handful of ingredients.

And it's so good, so good.

I get a sneak peek here.

-Yeah.

-I just want to adjust the seasonings.

The salt is perfect.

I'm just gonna add a little bit of pepper.

-Well, you never know because different sausages can have different levels of seasoning, but also the chicken broth that you choose.

-Yes, exactly.

So you always want to taste food at the end before you serve it.

All right.

We're ready to go.

-Is it ready?

-It's ready!

-[ Chuckles ] -Give you a nice bowl here.

-Hubba hubba.

-I know.

I love the color of that broth.

You're gonna see how good it's gonna taste, right?

-Gorgeous.

Almost has a chowdery look to it.

-Yeah, it does, it does.

And now, just like with the Olive Garden, why not add a little parmesan?

May I?

-Pile it on.

-All right.

-All right.

A little bit of that sausage and a little bit of kale in the same bite.

Look at that.

It's the trifecta.

Potato, sausage, kale.

-But, Bridget, I just went for just the broth.

And the broth has so much flavor from the garlic and the sausage.

-So savory.

-So simple, but so good.

-Thank you, Becky.

This was fantastic.

-You're very welcome.

-Now, if you want to make this amazing soup at home, it starts with a super savory soup base made from browned Italian sausage, onion, and garlic.

Add potatoes and simmer in broth before adding kale, and then finish with heavy cream and serve with parmesan.

So from "America's Test Kitchen", a savory, spectacular, and simple-to-make, our zuppa toscana.

It's my zuppa Toscana now.

♪♪ -So we are tasting sliced sandwich bread.

As you can see, it's white bread.

I've got four samples.

We tasted all the bestselling brands in the country, and I'm going to let you guys dig in.

Do you know that we're coming up on a big anniversary?

Sliced bread is turning 100.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Really?

That's it?

-That's it.

Well, so the history here is really fascinating.

Before the turn of the 20th century, bread was sold without packaging.

You could just walk into a supermarket or a grocery store, pick up the loaf, smell it, and squeeze it.

And then after Upton Sinclair and "The Jungle" came out, people were like, "Oh, yeah, we need to put some packaging on the bread."

But then no one could tell how fresh it was.

So they started adding dough conditioners to make it soft, because the way you would judge the freshness of the bread was to give it a squeeze, because that's really all you could do once it was in the package.

-Bread and toilet paper.

-Yeah.

Well, the problem is that really soft loaves are impossible to slice at home.

-Right.

-So then they started pre-slicing them at the bakery so that people weren't cutting themselves or struggling with it.

So that's the sort of short history of sliced bread.

These are not like what you would make at home.

In addition to sugar, there's also going to be vegetable oil to give it a little bit of plushness.

-Right.

-Dough conditioners, giving it that soft texture and allowing it to sort of seem like it's fresh, even though it's not fresh.

And then preservatives, because this bread is going to last a couple of weeks.

And so some of the dough conditioners, citric acid and vinegar, act as dough conditioners, can impart a little bit of sourness.

And so you might get a hint of sort of acidity or sourness, which our tasters didn't really like.

It's not making the bread better.

-Right.

-You know, it might make it softer, but it's not making it tastier.

I love how you guys are tasting.

I mean, Julia, you've demolished them.

You've gone right for the centers.

I'm going to start with you, Julia.

What did you learn from your demolition derby there?

-You were saying the word "sour", and I was tasting the letter C, then I got it.

And I went back and tasted it again.

And it definitely has a sour aftertaste.

Not a fan.

-Okay.

-B tastes pretty sweet.

I don't mind it, but it does turn gummy.

It reminds me of the '70s, going to my neighbors and having a baloney sandwich.

My favorites were A and D. I liked them equally, quite frankly.

They didn't turn to gum.

They have a nice feathery texture.

They're light.

They don't have a flavor one way or the other.

I think it would make a great sandwich.

-Okay.

All right.

So A and D.

-Mm-hmm.

Bridget?

-C was very sour to me.

You don't want something to taste sourdough-ish in a white sliced sandwich bread.

-Correct.

-I love my sourdough to taste sour, not this particular.

The crumb was, though, nice and soft.

It was very plush, so I imagine that's one of the ones with vinegar.

This one, B, I thought it was a lovely plushy texture.

I did notice the same gumminess that Julia noticed, but I didn't hate it at all.

This one reminds me of my grandma's house.

-Definitely.

-Is that a happy memory?

-It's a great memory.

-Okay.

-The only thing missing from here is baloney.

And then a little bowl of Jell-O afterwards.

If I was going for an all-around bread, I would probably go with B.

-And, Julia?

-A.

-A. Julia has chosen the winner.

-Oh!

Ding, ding!

-Ah!

-So this is the Sara Lee Artesano.

-[ Laughs ] -I know.

-Fancy.

-Yeah, it was the tasters' favorite, has a decent amount of sugar.

-It is a little thicker.

-It's a little thicker than some of the other slices.

You know, the 1/2 inch slices were too thin, 3/4-inch is kind of too thick.

And that's right there in the middle.

Next up, B, is the Pepperidge Farm.

-Oh.

-So this came in in third place.

-Mm-hmm.

-People liked it.

It's a classic.

Very familiar.

-Yes.

-I bet you've used Pepperidge Farm before.

-It tastes a little sweet, too.

-Yeah, it's a little sweet, but it's a lovely -- It's got a, you know, nice texture.

It wasn't quite as good in the tasting panel's view as A. But it was good.

-Makes sense.

-Both of your taste buds are working quite well today because C was the Panera, which has got a lot of acidic ingredients in it.

-Yeah.

-Actually, two of them.

-You can smell it.

-And so it has a distinct sour taste and aroma, and tasters did not like that.

The Panera was down towards the bottom.

And then last place... -Ah.

-...was the Wonder, D. Now you almost picked D as your favorite.

-I wasn't allowed to have this as a child, so I always coveted it at my neighbor's house, so... -Yeah.

-Yeah.

I mean, it's, you know, in terms of texture, I'm still going to go with B, but for memories, I'm going to go with D.

-Yeah, it's really sweet.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-And so it has more sugar, and it doesn't have enough salt.

So it's almost like it's overweighted on the sweet side, and a little bit more salt actually kind of keeps the sweetness in check.

-I would salt it with baloney.

-There you have it.

And Jell-O, too, right?

-And Jell-O, too.

-Well, so we found some sandwich breads that we like.

-Yes.

-And we found some sandwich breads that we couldn't have as children and that we remember as from our childhood.

-Right.

♪♪ -Focaccia is a traditional Italian bread known for its dimpled surface and rich olive oil flavor.

And today, Bridget's going to show us a version that's super light and airy.

-Even better.

Super easy.

-Ooh.

-I mean, focaccia is one of those breads that if you're a beginner to making bread at home, this is a great place to start because there isn't a whole lot of manipulation of the dough that you need to do.

So we're going to start off with our basic ingredients making our dough.

Now I'm using bread flour here.

You know, the general rule of thumb is the fluffier that you want a bread to be, the stronger the dough needs to be.

So for a strong dough, we want to use bread flour.

It has a higher protein count in it.

And so that means that it has a higher propensity to develop gluten once it's made into a dough.

So I'm going to talk in grams here.

-Okay.

-Because this really is about the ratio of flour to water.

And I'll explain in a minute.

But this is 390 grams of bread flour.

-All right.

-We're going to add a little bit of sugar, 2 teaspoons of sugar, mostly for flavor and browning.

But it's also going to give the yeast a kick start.

Speaking of, this is instant yeast, 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant yeast.

-You could also use rapid rise yeast.

-Exactly.

Just whisk this together.

And then now let's talk about the water.

So this is 340 grams of water.

-Really similar to the amount of flour.

-Exactly.

390, 340.

And when they talk about hydration of a bread dough or hydration percentage, it's the weight of the water divided by the weight of the flour.

So 340 divided by 390 gives you roughly 0.8717947, something, something... -Okay.

Human calculator.

-There you go.

So 0.87, multiply that by 100.

You get 87%.

-Really high percentage of water in this dough.

-High hydration.

So we're going to add this.

Again, 340 grams of room-temp water.

It goes right in.

And also some olive oil.

You know, olive oil does add to a lot of the flavor of the focaccia, but also the moisture level.

This is 2 tablespoons, by the way.

The rule of thumb is use an olive oil that you would like to dip the bread in afterwards.

-Ah, makes sense.

Yeah, the olive oil you really taste in this dough.

So you use a good one.

-All right.

So I'm just going to stir this together, and it's going to create a shaggy dough, and I want to stir it just until the flour is completely absorbed.

We don't see any dry patches anymore.

It only takes about a minute for this.

So now if you could, there's a piece of plastic over there.

-Mm-hmm.

-Thank you.

I'm just going to top this up.

And we're going to let this sit for about 20 minutes.

And during that time, the flour is going to get a chance to hydrate fully and start developing that gluten network.

-Okay.

-All right, Julia.

20 minutes has gone by.

We let that flour get nice and hydrated.

-Mm-hmm.

It looks very different.

-Yes, it does.

All right.

So now we can add our salt.

This is 2 teaspoons of table salt.

Now, rather than stir in that salt, I'm just going to start using my hands here.

So just dampening it because sticky dough doesn't want to stick to a wet hand.

I'm just going to start working that salt in there.

-Ooh, that is a gooey dough.

-Isn't it?

It's almost pudding-like.

-Yeah.

-And now we're going to start to develop even more gluten.

And we would do that traditionally with kneading dough on the surface, but you see how sticky this is.

So instead, I'm going to get both hands in here and start to pull up the dough just like this.

Turn the bowl about 90 degrees, pull it straight up and right in, just like that.

-Oh, so you're, like, stretching the gluten strands and folding them over each other.

-Yes.

-And that builds the gluten.

-I'm going to do this about 30 times, dampening my fingers as I need, but I'm going to keep on going around about 30 times.

But what I'm really looking for is this to start to feel just a little bit tighter.

And then also it's going to start to get a little bit smoother.

I'm going to put the plastic back on, and we're going to let this go another 20 minutes before we start to shape it.

-Okay.

-All right, Julia, the dough is almost ready.

It's been almost 20 minutes.

Let's talk about pan prep.

So we're going to use a 9x13-inch baking pan.

It's such a liquidy dough, you really do need to bake it in a container here.

-Makes it easy, though.

-It does make it easy.

So we've sprayed this with a little bit of cooking oil spray.

Now I'm going to put a sheet of parchment.

So this is a 16x12-inch sheet of parchment.

-Mm-hmm.

-I'm going to go right in here.

Oh, the oil in the pan is just to help the parchment stick to the pan.

-Exactly.

So we're going to work this into the corners.

Any excess here, we are going to fold inwards and kind of pleat like that.

-Oh, I love your little hospital corners.

-The parchment is there because if we didn't add the parchment to it, the focaccia would actually stick to the pan a little bit.

You get that little frost of kind of crust on the bottom, and it would stay with the pan instead of coming with the bread.

-Oh, bummer.

-That's because it's such a liquid dough.

It's so hydrated because a lot of the protein strands in the dough cannot stick together.

They can't bond together because there's so much water in there.

So they stay on the surface, and they gel to the pan.

-Oh, interesting.

-So now we're going to add to our pan here 3 more tablespoons of that beautiful extra virgin olive oil.

-Mm.

-I'm just going to swirl it around.

And this is not for nonstick-ability.

This is just for pure pleasure.

We just really want that deep, developed, crispy crust.

-Mm-hmm, and that good flavor.

-Yes, yes.

Yeah, flavor doesn't hurt either.

The crust, it should almost fry in the bottom of this pan.

Let's get on with the dough.

-Okay.

-Let's take our plastic off here.

All right, so we're not going to add flour to this.

We're going to once again use water to make everything nonstick.

-That is very clever.

Very cool.

I don't think we've ever done this at "America's Test Kitchen" before.

-I don't think so either.

All right.

So we're going to get this sticky dough out of here.

-It rolls out of the bowl.

-Right.

It's oozing.

It lives.

-It does.

It kind of reminds me of a little amoeba.

-Here, I'm going to give that to you.

Now I'm going to dampen both my hands.

And I'm going to start pressing this out to about a 15x10-inch rectangle.

Oh, thank you so much.

So you can stretch it out.

-Yeah, you're pretty much there.

-Is that it?

-Yeah.

You're good.

-And now I want to shape it just a little bit.

And I'm going to use this bench scraper.

I'm going to dampen it here.

And use this to fold this up almost like a business letter.

-Mm-hmm.

-So 1/3 of the way up.

And same thing here.

Just loosen it and start to fold it down just like this.

-Nice.

And that folding gives it a little more structure.

-That's right.

And if I see any large bubbles at any point, like really, really big bubbles, you just want to pinch them to get rid of them.

-Okay.

-All right.

So now I've got to move it to the pan.

-All right.

-All right.

This is a little bit of a cheeky monkey at this point.

We're going to plop this right in there.

I am inverting it first with that little bit of the seam that you saw.

-Yeah.

-Seam side down.

Get it all smothered in oil, then roll it back over just like that.

-Oh, hello.

-Yes, gorgeous.

And now I'm just going to start kind of widening it, getting it toward the edges of the pan as best I can.

I might need to do this a couple of times.

-Mm-hmm.

-Because if it snaps back like this, that's totally fine.

-You've built up some good gluten.

-I sure have.

All right.

If you wouldn't mind putting that piece of plastic on here.

-You got it.

-We're going to let this rest and rise for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

It's a wet dough.

It takes a long time for it to rise.

But 2 1/2 to 3 hours and until it looks all jiggly and wobbly.

♪♪ Looks a bit different, doesn't it?

-That is impressive.

-Ah!

-Oh!

-Yes.

But now it's almost time for the oven.

Drizzle it with another tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.

Ahhh!

-Yes.

And then I'm going to wet my fingertips and start to dimple this.

It really needs to be dimpled.

-Yep.

-And then any super big bubbles like this, you can pinch and break.

There you go.

And this is the last chance to move it out to the corners.

We've got 1 1/2 teaspoons of flake sea salt.

-Oh, yum.

I love flake salt.

It has that crunch.

-So now this is going to go into a super hot oven, 475 degrees.

It's not going to spend a lot of time in there, about 16 to 20 minutes.

But we need that big burst of heat because again, really hydrated dough, it's going to turn all that water into steam and give it lift and create all those beautiful air pockets that we want.

Going to look for the top to get really well browned.

So again, 16 to 20 minutes.

-Okay.

♪♪ Oh, hubba hubba!

-[ Laughs ] It's a looker.

Look at that deep color.

Oh!

-Wow!

-Oh, the smell of fresh-baked bread.

My goodness.

-And listen.

You can hear it.

-It's talking to me.

-It is!

"Julia, eat me!"

-"Eat me, Julia!"

All right, we need to get it out of the pan, though.

Easy to do.

It's not sticking to anything at this point.

-Oh, yeah.

-I'm gonna use a spatula.

Just turn it out on to this wire rack.

-Mm-hmm.

-And now the hardest part.

-Waiting.

-Waiting.

Waiting is always the hardest part.

We want to let this cool off for about 20 minutes, just to let the structure set up before we cut into it.

-It's also a little hot.

-I'd still eat it.

♪♪ -Oh!

-[ Laughs ] What do you think?

-Well, I saw the crust press down when you were cutting.

That just means it's incredibly fluffy.

-Look at that interior!

-That is incredible.

-Isn't it beautiful?

-Uh-huh.

-I'm just going to cut into little pieces straight across.

The beauty of this bread is it is so super soft.

It's great for sandwiches.

We actually have a bunch of ideas available on our website for that.

All right.

If this wasn't good enough, I've got some treats in store for you.

-I noticed.

So these are the variations you can make with this dough.

-Exactly.

So this is three different toppings.

And all these toppings are relatively light and relatively dry in texture.

So they don't weigh down that focaccia anymore.

This is just sun-dried tomato.

-Mm-hmm.

-This is a little bit of kalamata olives and some beautiful fresh herbs, in this case, rosemary.

-My mouth is watering.

-Yes.

Would you like an end piece?

-And more.

-And at least two pieces for Julia.

-Yeah.

-How about that?

-Absolutely.

-I'm going to take the other two ends.

-Yeah.

Look how fluffy this is.

And soft.

Goodness.

That has so much flavor, the olive oil, the salt.

-That crisp crust on the bottom from all of that fruity olive oil.

That's the gold part right there.

It's so amazing how tender and again, fluffy.

-Man, this is delicious.

Bridget, this rocks my socks.

-It was so easy.

-It was so easy.

Great for a beginner, but doesn't taste like a beginner bread.

-Not at all.

-Thank you for showing me how to make it.

-You bet.

-If you want to make the fluffiest focaccia, start by mixing together a super wet dough using your hands, fold the dough to develop gluten, and bake in an oil-lined cake pan in a very hot oven.

From "America's Test Kitchen", a spectacular recipe for light and airy focaccia.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with our product reviews and select episodes at our website, AmericasTestKitchen.com/tv.

-So floofy.

-[ Laughs ] -Way past fluffy.

-Way past fluff.

-Join us inside the test kitchen at americastestkitchen.com, where you can explore our newest season's recipes, learn about top performing kitchen equipment, and master cooking techniques alongside your favorite test cooks.

Visit us at americastestkitchen.com/tv.

-Take your cooking to the next level with this year's edition of America's Test Kitchen Complete TV Cookbook.

Every recipe from all 27 seasons of public television's most watched cooking show is included.

In addition to standout recipes, our cookbook also has equipment recommendations and ingredient reviews.

The cost is $29.99.

That's over 40% off the cover price of $50.

To order, head to americastestkitchen.com/tvbook.

-"America's Test Kitchen" is brought to you by the following.

-Plugrà European-style butter was created for all chefs, cooks, and bakers, slow-churned with 82% butterfat for a smooth texture and more pliability for flaky crusts.

Plugrà -- from professional kitchens to your home.

-GreenPan Frost, the frozen treat maker that makes ice cream, sorbet, slushies, and more, with a built-in chiller that goes from fresh to frozen.

GreenPan Frost.

-On an American Cruise Lines journey, travelers can experience the maritime heritage of the Maine coast and New England islands.

Our fleet of small cruise ships explore seaside villages, private harbors, and historic lighthouses while experiencing the local customs and cuisine that define New England.

American Cruise Lines, proud sponsor of "America's Test Kitchen."

-Smithey Ironware -- polished for performance, naturally nonstick, clear of chemical coatings, made in America, made to be passed down for generations.

Smithey -- Use it well.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪